I have many different hobbies, and keep adding more to my list, but the two hobbies that I’ve done ever since I can remember are music and art.  The one I’m focusing on at the moment is art.  I’m traditionally a graphite artist but will dabble with colored pencils, watercolors, oils and acrylics.  I draw various kinds of media, but have found botanical art to be my true calling.

The one thing I really enjoy doing in the summer is taking my pencil and a drawing pad with me to airshows, parks and gardens.  I have experimented with various methods of transporting my “tools”, but hadn’t found anything that worked how I wanted.  I tried various bags but they were either too big and/or I ended up spending most of my time digging for my eraser or a brush.

Since money is tight on my end I had to take some time to dig around for what I needed.  I quickly learned that to put together a nice artists field bag all you need is a little good luck and some creativity.  There are many different bags out there that have potential.  I’ve found that messenger bags work the best but when looking for a good quality useful bag, try a military surplus store.  As I am a thrifter and a big fan of repurposing things I stopped over at the military surplus section of the farm store one day.  There was a stack of of leather satchels on the shelf.   Labeled as a Czechoslovakian officers bag I found it to be fantastic and had to have it.   I knew that it could be very useful for my art.   It was under $20, all leather and even had a lock on it in case I needed to lock up some paperwork.  I didn’t figure I would ever need to lock it but the option was way cool!  It came home with me.   The bag is now my field bag and is PERFECT!  It has places for all of my accouterments.

I realized early on that having a pencil that you have to sharpen in the field is really annoying.  Luckily I had trained myself long ago how to draw with a mechanical pencil.  People are amazed that I can get them to work but where there’s a will there’s a way.  That’s all I had to work with so that’s what I learned to draw with.  Most can’t even tell from the artwork.  A mechanical pencil isn’t complete without it’s friend the mechanical eraser.:)

At the dollar section of Target I found a small makeup brush kit which quickly became my new blending kit.  I also found a pair of nylon wristies, in the same place, that I use to help stop smudges caused by my hands.  In the travel section of Hyvee (local grocery store) I found a blush brush (also $1) that would work perfect for brushing away eraser pieces.  An old metal Altoids box dressed up with a refrigerator magnet holds my pencil lead and eraser extras.  They are also good for holding chapstick,  ponytail elastics and various other things.  I always remember my travel sized bottle of sunscreen too!

Messenger bags generally hold any standard size drawing pad.  I like to take a drawing pad and loose paper.  A standard sized clip board, computer paper and a fancy folder for holding all those loose paper drawings (bought at the back to school sales)  make outdoor drawing a breeze.